Agenda item

To consider the granting of dispensations to a number of Hyndburn Councillors and Altham Parish Councillors, to speak and vote on certain issues.

Recommended             (1)    That Standards Committee approve the requests submitted by Hyndburn Borough Council members to grant dispensations to speak and vote on the issues set out in Section 3.2 of the report for the period indicated in Paragraph 3.8; and

(2)  That Standards Committee approve the requests from Altham Parish Council members to grant dispensations to speak and vote on the issues set out in Section 3.5 of the report for the period indicated in Paragraph 3.8.

The Executive Director (Legal & Democratic Services) submitted a report seeking the granting of dispensations to a number of Hyndburn Councillors and Altham Parish Councillors, to vote on the issues as outlined below:

Hyndburn Councillors:

·       An allowance, payment or indemnity given to Members;

·       Ceremonial honours given to Members;

·       Setting Council Tax or a precept under the Local Government and Finance Act 1992 as amended from time to time or any superseding legislation;

·       Setting a local Council Tax reduction scheme for the purposes of the Local Government Finance Act 2012 as amended from time to time or any superseding legislation; and

·       Setting a local scheme for the payment of business rates, including eligibility for rebates and reductions, for the purposes of the Local Government Finance Act 2012 as amended from time to time and any superseding legislation.

Altham Parish Councillors:

·       The setting of a parish precept

The Hyndburn Borough Councillors who submitted applications for dispensations were:

Councillors Heather Anderson, Mike Booth, Stephen Button, David Parkins, Mohammed Younis, Loraine Cox, Melissa Fisher, Zak Khan and Kate Walsh.  The remaining 26 Councillors already had dispensations in place. 

The Altham Parish Councillors who submitted applications for dispensations were:

Parish Councillors John Halstead, David Murray, Rennie Pinder, Robert Dexter-Stubbs, Joseph Threlfall and Jon Chadwick.

Two Altham Parish Councillors did not submit applications for dispensations:  Parish Councillor Joshua Haworth and Helen Hummerston.

The applications for dispensations requested by the Hyndburn Councillors and Parish Councillors were for four years to cover a period of 13^th October 2023 to 12^th October 2027.

Councillor Zak Khan declared a personal interest in the item relating to the Hyndburn Councillors due to the inclusion of his own application for a dispensation and, therefore, did not take part in the vote. 

Resolved                               -  That the applications for dispensations from the Hyndburn Councillors and Altham Parish Councillors, as listed in the minutes above, were approved for a period of 4 years from 13^th October 2023 to 12^th October 2027.